Well, back then apparently no one seemed to clarify that no one was actually redistributing your comic but rather providing a regex that makes reading it much easier. The .cbW (not .CBR, that would have been a MUCH bigger file as it would have actually had the images in it) actually loads the web page so that it can find the data it needs, so it should provide you with your website hits. It really is just a specialized web browser.

As for the actual reading of webcomics, being able to preload images ahead of time greatly improves the reading experience - I don't have to wait an extra thirty seconds between pages while my traditional web browser loads the next page. There's also the extra reading tools ComicRack provides for all digital comics. I HIGHLY suggest trying the .cbw format for yourself.

So it sounds like you're saying it's just reading the images that are already on the site rather than downloading them. While that's better, it's still kinda sounds like reading it in a browser with an adblock extension that blocks every single element except the comic itself.

I'll have to look at it a little closer so I can speak to the issue with an informed opinion.

So it sounds like you're saying it's just reading the images that are already on the site rather than downloading them. While that's better, it's still kinda sounds like reading it in a browser with an adblock extension that blocks every single element except the comic itself.

I'll have to look at it a little closer so I can speak to the issue with an informed opinion.

I'll whip up a .cbw for your comic in a bit and send it to you. You'll have to excuse us, but if it becomes widely accepted that webcomic support in ComicRack is piracy that'll just outright kill the efforts cYo and others have made so far. I mean, had this thread been offering a FireFox script that blocks everything but specified elements, I don't think anyone would have thought there was even a problem.

As cYo confirmed, CBWs in conjunction with Comicrack functions like a browser in that it retrieves pages from the comic's official site then displays them to the user. CBWs don't store the image files themselves.

Mr Clark and his co-author would still be able to see user-agent impressions from Comicrack in their server logs (I do assume that comicrack has its own user-agent string). Come to think of it, comicrack has a smaller bandwith footprint than a regular browser as comicrack doesn't download all the website UI stuff, only the comic page. Bandwith savings FTW!

The only thing Mr Clark would be missing is the ad click-throughs and possibly Forum interaction from users. Though as he said, there area a plethora of adblockers that already do that handily. And generally, CBWs will have a reference to the official web comic website so that users can easily head over there anyway. And if they don't, I believe they should.